Rumor: WWDC could introduce iPhone 5 for June launch

Although leading speculation puts this year's iPhone in customer's hands come October, rumors continue to persist that Apple could introduce the iPhone 5 at this year's WWDC event in San Francisco.

A Korean website speculates that Apple may introduce this year's iPhone 5 during its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, which kicks off June 11 in San Francisco.

Apple broke from its early summer tradition for the current iPhone 4S, which was both announced and launched last October.

While pundits aren't expecting a new iPhone until the same September-October timeframe this year, the Korean report sounds more confident that the iPhone 5 will be even thinner and lighter, thanks to the use of a new liquid metal casing for better protection.

"According to industry sources, the next flagship phones of [Apple and Samsung] are expected to adopt unprecedented materials for their main bodies, that is, ceramic for the Galaxy S3 and liquid metal for iPhone 5, both being thin, light and highly resistant to external impacts," the report notes.

"The new phase of the rivalry is because neither one of them can get a decisive edge over the other solely with its OS and AP specifications, features or design."

Enter liquidmetal

Back in August, 2010, Apple acquired the rights to "amorphous metal alloys" produced by Liquidmetal Technologies, and even hired engineers to continue work on the technology. Since then, however, the rumor trail has gone cold - until now.

There's no solid evidence to support the Korean website's claims, but with WWDC 2012 mere weeks away now, we won't have long to wait to find out for ourselves.